Over expanded and HORRIBLE management

We had a Tower store in Westbury, NY. I never liked shopping there. My record store of choice was always Slipped Disc in Valley Stream. In the early 80's, we used to ride our bikes there every Sunday to get the previous week's heavy metal releases(on cassette). It was always THE destination for heavy metal, punk and emerging underground stuff. When I stopped buying physical music in the mid 2000s, they went out of business a few years later.

I used to do the sales reports for the Village store and could see that sales were down from the previous year month after month. This was in 1999 right before Napster appeared on the scene. Things were already changing in the record business. I think the comment about not selling singles was significant, but also the arrival of the box store market. They could sell CDs for less money and were already nationwide. Why go to a record store when you can just pick up your CD for less money while you're buying bulk TP? Mind you, it's surprising they didn't talk about Amazon. Yeah, back then it was a book seller, but they were already head hunting for CD buyers, and their appearance in the world has changed our relationship with all brick and mortar stores. (That they are now opening their own is such an FU to every mom and pop shop they put out of business)

One of my favorite things about working there was getting to know all these people who were like music encyclopedias. I'm sad this documentary didn't allocate any of its time to the younger generations that worked there. No interviews with "regular" employees. None of our amazing anecdotes about the times we shared, the Stars we talked to, our favorite (or most hated) customers, the music we learned about. Even the customers they interviewed were only the famous ones. Someone needs to go out and gather the regular folks' stories too!

The world changed for Japan, too, but their 85 Tower Record stores are thriving.